Give DeVonta Smith His Due as Wide Receiver Continues to Silence Critics: All Things CW

Former Alabama standout and Heisman Trophy winner on verge of joining an elite club should the Eagles win Super Bowl LVII

The All Things CW notes column by Christopher Walsh appears in five parts each week, with the latest on the Alabama Crimson Tide. This is ...

Take 4

If the Kansas City Chiefs overlook DeVonta Smith the way that a lot of fans do, the former Alabama Crimson Tide wide receiver might have five touchdown catches  in Super Bowl LVII ... 

... and run in another.

Ok, the chances of that are none, as the Chiefs are fully aware of how good of a player Smith has been for the Philadelphia Eagles. During the regular season he had 95 catches for 1,196 yards. Even with A.J. Brown on the roster, the receptions were the second most by a player during a single season in franchise history, and he set the record for the most catches (159) by a Philadelphia player over his first two seasons.

Yet a lot of people still don't give him his due. The same is true of his quarterback as well, making them maybe the most underrated passing combination in the NFL even though the Eagles are in the Super Bowl. 

So far in the postseason, Smith has been Philadelphia’s top receiver in production, not Brown.  

He leads the team in receiving yards, yards per catch, first downs and he’s tied for first in receiving touchdowns. Yet you look at Smith's prop expectations for the Super Bowl and they're below Brown’s. 

Granted, Brown is a very good player, but it's time everyone to stop questioning his 6-foot-1, 170-pound size when all he does is succeed. Alabama Crimson Tide Fans may know better than anyone how well Smith can play in a big game.

Remember the 2020 title run? Smith had 12 catches for 215 yards and three touchdowns in the national championship game against Ohio State and then didn't play a good part of the second half. He had seven catches for 130 yards and three touchdowns against Notre Dame in the CFP semifinal, and 15 catches for 184 yards and two scores in the SEC Championship Game. 

That's 34 catches for 529 yards and eight touchdowns in those three postseason games alone, on top of performances like eight catches for 231 yards and three touchdowns against LSU. 

"He's big-game ready. He's built for this," Mark Ingram II, another Heisman Trophy winner from Alabama, told NFL Total Access this week. 

Should the Eagles win on Sunday, Smith will become just the fourth player in football history to have pulled off a unique triple crown: winning the Heisman Trophy, a collegiate national championship, and a Super Bowl championship.

He'll only be 24 as well. 

Smith won two national titles at Alabama (2017 and 2020), and won the Heisman Trophy in 2020 when he caught 117 passes for 1,856 yards and 23 touchdowns.

The others to do it are Charles Woodson, Marcus Allen, and Tony Dorsett.

Reggie Bush can claim it as well, but his Heisman was vacated when the NCAA penalized the USC for improper benefits received by Bush while with the Trojans, meaning that he  should have been ineligible when he won the award. 

Asked if he feels any differences between playing for the championship of the NFL versus college, Smith said this week: “The only difference is, in college, I kind of knew I was going to be back next year. Here it’s different. You don’t get this opportunity that many times.” 

It sounds like he's ready to try and make the most of the opportunity.  

From one Bama boy to another: @DeVontaSmith_6 is built for this moment 😤@markingramII | @AlabamaFTBL pic.twitter.com/nJe56I1m5V

— NFL Total Access (@NFLTotalAccess) February 8, 2023

See Also:

Take 1: Nick Saban Still Got What He Wanted With Alabama's New Coordinators

Take 2: Does Balanced Field of Title Contenders Help Alabama Basketball?

Take 3: Why the Draft Stock of an Alabama Player is Rising After Senior Bowl